Main thesis is that growth is much more likely under inclusive institutions than extractive institutions.

Though growth is much more likely under inclusive institutions, it is still possible under extractive institutions.

Their basic point is valid, but maybe just a little oversold. I'm not sure that Acemoglu and Robinson really think that there is nothing at all to be done to improve things in countries with weak institutions.

Finally, they make a point also made by Tony Blair which you don't otherwise tend to hear too much - focusing relentlessly on delivery of something can help to improve governance.

Good policies can also help break the vicious cycle of low expectations: If the government starts to deliver, people will start taking politics more seriously and put pressure on the government to deliver more, rather than opting out or voting unthinkingly for their coethnics or taking up arms against the government.

The political constraints are real, and they make it difficult to find big solutions to big problems. But there is considerable slack to improve institutions and policy at the margin. Careful understanding of the motivations and the constraints of everyone (poor people, civil servants, taxpayers, elected politicians, and so on) can lead to policies and institutions that are better designed, and less likely to be perverted by corruption or dereliction of duty.

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"Because the consequences for human welfare involved in questions like these are simply staggering: Once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about anything else." (Lucas 1988, On the Mechanics of Economic Development)

"The philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point however is to change it" (Marx 1888)

Roving Bandit is a reference to Mancur Olson, not because I think I'm some kind of badass.

"represent the material embodiment of market discourses that run through the capillary structures of orgs that conform contemporary neoliberal ed policy" -- Education International